Roberto Arlt
Encyclopedia
Roberto Arlt was an Argentine
writer.
on April 2, 1900. His parents were both immigrants: his father Karl Arlt was a Prussian from Posen (now Poznan
in present-day Poland) and his mother was Ekatherine Iobstraibitzer, a native of Trieste and Italian speaking. German was the language commonly used at their home. His relationship with his father was stressful, as Karl Arlt was a very severe and austere man, by Arlt's own account. The memory of his oppressive father would appear in several of his writings. For example, Remo Erdosain (a character at least partially based on Arlt's own life) often recalls his abusive father and how little if any support he would give him. After being expelled from school at the age of eight, Arlt became an autodidact and worked at all sorts of different odd jobs before landing a job on at a local newspaper: as clerk at a bookstore, apprentice to a tinsmith, painter, mechanic, welder, manager in a brick factory, and dock worker.
His first novel, El juguete rabioso (1926) ("Mad Toy
"), was the semi-autobiographical story of Silvio, a dropout who goes through a series of adventures trying to be "somebody." Narrated by Silvio's older self, the novel reflects the energy and chaos of the early 20th century in Buenos Aires. The narrator's literary and sometimes poetic language contrasts sharply with the street-level slang of Mad Toy
's many colorful characters.
Arlt's second novel, the popular Los siete locos (The Seven Madmen) was rough, brutal, colloquial and surreal, a complete break from the polite, middle-class literature more typical of Argentine literature (as exemplified, perhaps, by the work of Jorge Luis Borges
, however innovative his work was in other respects). Los lanzallamas
(The Flame-Throwers) was the sequel, and these two novels together are thought by many to be his greatest work. What followed were a series of short stories and plays in which Arlt pursued his vision of bizarre, half-mad, alienated characters pursuing insane quests in a landscape of urban chaos. In 1932 he published El amor brujo
.
During his lifetime, however, Arlt was best known for his "Aguafuertes" ("Etchings"), the result of his contributions as a columnist - between 1928 and 1942 - to the Buenos Aires
daily "El Mundo". Arlt used these columns to comment, in his characteristically forthright and unpretentious style, on the peculiarities, hypocrisies, strangeness and beauty of everyday life in Argentina's capital. These articles included occasional exposés of public institutions, such as the juvenile justice system ("Escuela primaria de delincuencia", 26–29 September 1932) or the Public Health System. Some of the "Aguafuertes" were collected in two volumes under the titles Secretos femeninos. Aguafuertes inéditas and Tratado de delincuencia. Aguafuertes inéditas which were edited by Sergio Olguín
and published by Ediciones 12 and Página/12 in 1996.
Between March and May 1930, Arlt wrote a series of "Aguafuertes" as a correspondent to "El Mundo" in Rio de Janeiro. In 1935 he spent nearly a year writing as he traveled throughout Spain and North Africa, on the eve of the Spanish Civil War. At the time of his death, Arlt was hoping to be sent to the United States as a correspondent.
Worn out and exhausted after a lifetime of hardships, he died from a stroke on July 26, 1942. His coffin was lowered from his apartment by an operated crane, an ironic end, considering his bizarre stories.
Arlt has been massively influential on Latin American literature, including the 1960s "Boom" generation of writers such as Gabriel García Márquez. Analogues in English literature are those who avoid literary 'respectability' by writing about the poor, the criminal and the mad: writers like William Burroughs, Iceberg Slim
, and Irvine Welsh
. Arlt, however, predated all of them. He is widely considered to be one of the founders of the modern Argentine novel; among those contemporary writers who claim to have been influenced by Arlt are Abelardo Castillo
, Ricardo Piglia
and César Aira
. At least two Argentine movies were based on his novels, Los siete locos (1974) and El juguete rabioso (1985).
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
writer.
Biography
He was born Roberto Godofredo Christophersen Arlt in Buenos AiresBuenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
on April 2, 1900. His parents were both immigrants: his father Karl Arlt was a Prussian from Posen (now Poznan
Poznan
Poznań is a city on the Warta river in west-central Poland, with a population of 556,022 in June 2009. It is among the oldest cities in Poland, and was one of the most important centres in the early Polish state, whose first rulers were buried at Poznań's cathedral. It is sometimes claimed to be...
in present-day Poland) and his mother was Ekatherine Iobstraibitzer, a native of Trieste and Italian speaking. German was the language commonly used at their home. His relationship with his father was stressful, as Karl Arlt was a very severe and austere man, by Arlt's own account. The memory of his oppressive father would appear in several of his writings. For example, Remo Erdosain (a character at least partially based on Arlt's own life) often recalls his abusive father and how little if any support he would give him. After being expelled from school at the age of eight, Arlt became an autodidact and worked at all sorts of different odd jobs before landing a job on at a local newspaper: as clerk at a bookstore, apprentice to a tinsmith, painter, mechanic, welder, manager in a brick factory, and dock worker.
His first novel, El juguete rabioso (1926) ("Mad Toy
Mad Toy
Mad Toy is the first novel of the Argentinean author Roberto Arlt. Published in 1926 by Editorial Latina, it is markedly autobiographical in nature...
"), was the semi-autobiographical story of Silvio, a dropout who goes through a series of adventures trying to be "somebody." Narrated by Silvio's older self, the novel reflects the energy and chaos of the early 20th century in Buenos Aires. The narrator's literary and sometimes poetic language contrasts sharply with the street-level slang of Mad Toy
Mad Toy
Mad Toy is the first novel of the Argentinean author Roberto Arlt. Published in 1926 by Editorial Latina, it is markedly autobiographical in nature...
's many colorful characters.
Arlt's second novel, the popular Los siete locos (The Seven Madmen) was rough, brutal, colloquial and surreal, a complete break from the polite, middle-class literature more typical of Argentine literature (as exemplified, perhaps, by the work of Jorge Luis Borges
Jorge Luis Borges
Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo , known as Jorge Luis Borges , was an Argentine writer, essayist, poet and translator born in Buenos Aires. In 1914 his family moved to Switzerland where he attended school, receiving his baccalauréat from the Collège de Genève in 1918. The family...
, however innovative his work was in other respects). Los lanzallamas
Los lanzallamas
Los lanzallamas is an Argentine novel, written by Roberto Arlt. It was first published in 1931....
(The Flame-Throwers) was the sequel, and these two novels together are thought by many to be his greatest work. What followed were a series of short stories and plays in which Arlt pursued his vision of bizarre, half-mad, alienated characters pursuing insane quests in a landscape of urban chaos. In 1932 he published El amor brujo
El amor brujo (novel)
El amor brujo is an Argentine novel, written by Roberto Arlt. It was first published in 1932....
.
During his lifetime, however, Arlt was best known for his "Aguafuertes" ("Etchings"), the result of his contributions as a columnist - between 1928 and 1942 - to the Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
daily "El Mundo". Arlt used these columns to comment, in his characteristically forthright and unpretentious style, on the peculiarities, hypocrisies, strangeness and beauty of everyday life in Argentina's capital. These articles included occasional exposés of public institutions, such as the juvenile justice system ("Escuela primaria de delincuencia", 26–29 September 1932) or the Public Health System. Some of the "Aguafuertes" were collected in two volumes under the titles Secretos femeninos. Aguafuertes inéditas and Tratado de delincuencia. Aguafuertes inéditas which were edited by Sergio Olguín
Sergio Olguín
Sergio Olguín is an Argentinean author, journalist and literary critic born on 29 January 1967 in Buenos Aires. Whereas most of the novels that he has published to date can be categorised as youth literature, he has also published stories and novels that do not fall in this category.-Biography:He...
and published by Ediciones 12 and Página/12 in 1996.
Between March and May 1930, Arlt wrote a series of "Aguafuertes" as a correspondent to "El Mundo" in Rio de Janeiro. In 1935 he spent nearly a year writing as he traveled throughout Spain and North Africa, on the eve of the Spanish Civil War. At the time of his death, Arlt was hoping to be sent to the United States as a correspondent.
Worn out and exhausted after a lifetime of hardships, he died from a stroke on July 26, 1942. His coffin was lowered from his apartment by an operated crane, an ironic end, considering his bizarre stories.
Arlt has been massively influential on Latin American literature, including the 1960s "Boom" generation of writers such as Gabriel García Márquez. Analogues in English literature are those who avoid literary 'respectability' by writing about the poor, the criminal and the mad: writers like William Burroughs, Iceberg Slim
Iceberg Slim
Iceberg Slim aka Robert Beck was a reformed pimp and American author of urban fiction.-Early life:Born Robert Lee Maupin, in Chicago on August 4, 1918, he spent his childhood in Milwaukee and Rockford, Illinois until he returned to Chicago...
, and Irvine Welsh
Irvine Welsh
Irvine Welsh is a contemporary Scottish novelist, best known for his novel Trainspotting. His work is characterised by raw Scottish dialect, and brutal depiction of the realities of Edinburgh life...
. Arlt, however, predated all of them. He is widely considered to be one of the founders of the modern Argentine novel; among those contemporary writers who claim to have been influenced by Arlt are Abelardo Castillo
Abelardo Castillo
Abelardo Castillo is an Argentine writer, born in the city of San Pedro, Buenos Aires. He practised amateur boxing in his youth...
, Ricardo Piglia
Ricardo Piglia
Ricardo Piglia is one of the foremost contemporary Argentine writers, known for his fiction, including several collections of short stories; the novels Artificial Respiration , The Absent City , Burnt Money ; and criticism including Criticism and Fiction , Brief Forms and...
and César Aira
César Aira
César Aira is an Argentine writer and translator, and an exponent of Argentine contemporary literature. He has published over fifty books of stories, novels and essays...
. At least two Argentine movies were based on his novels, Los siete locos (1974) and El juguete rabioso (1985).
Novels
- El diario de un morfinómano (1920) (Diary of a Morphimaniac)
- El juguete rabioso (1926) (Mad Toy)
- Los siete locos (1929) (Seven Madmen)
- Los lanzallamasLos lanzallamasLos lanzallamas is an Argentine novel, written by Roberto Arlt. It was first published in 1931....
(1931) (The Flame-Throwers) - El amor brujo (1932) (Bewitching Love)
Plays
- El humillado (1930)
- 300 millones (1932)
- Prueba de amor (1932)
- Escenas de un grotesco (1934)
- Saverio el Cruel (1936)
- El fabricante de fantasmas (1936)
- La isla desierta (1937)
- Separación feroz (1938)
- África (1938)
- La fiesta del hierro (1940)
- El desierto entra a la ciudad (1952) (posthumous)
- La cabeza separada del tronco (1964) (posthumous)
- El amor brujo (1971) (posthumous)
Short story collections
- El jorobadito (1933) (The Little Hunchback)
- El criador de gorilas (1941) (The Gorilla Handler)
Journalism
- Aguafuertes porteñas (1933) (Etchings from Buenos Aires)
- Aguafuertes españolas (1936) (Etchings from Spain)
- Nuevas aguafuertes españolas (1960) (New Etchings from Spain)
- Secretos femeninos. Aguafuertes inéditas (1996) (Female Secrets. Unpublished Etchings)
- Tratado de delincuencia. Aguafuertes inéditas (1996) (Treatise on Delinquency. Unpublished Etchings)
External links
- http://www.cervantesvirtual.com/bib_autor/Arlt/biografia.shtml Biography of Roberto Arlt at Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de CervantesBiblioteca Virtual Miguel de CervantesThe Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes is a large-scale digital library project, hosted and maintained by the University of Alicante in Alicante, Spain. It comprises the largest open-access repository of digitised Spanish-language historical texts and literature from the Ibero-American world...
- http://www.literatura.org/Arlt/Arlt.html Page on Roberto Arlt at Literatura.org
- http://estanislao1975.blogspot.com/2009/03/roberto-arlt-biografia.html Page on Roberto Arlt
- http://www.planetalibro.com.ar/ebooks/eam/ebook_view.php?ebooks_books_id=16 El juguete rabioso] (Spanish pdf)
- http://www.dukeupress.edu/cgibin/forwardsql/search.cgi?template0=nomatch.htm&template2=books/book_detail_page.htm&user_id=22393518801&Bmain.item_option=1&Bmain.item=5374 Mad Toy]
- Profile Page for Roberto Arlt at Find A GraveFind A GraveFind a Grave is a commercial website providing free access and input to an online database of cemetery records. It was founded in 1998 as a DBA and incorporated in 2000.-History:...